The blight of modern Pakistan cricket has become the situation of the opening batsmen. It would be hard to argue that Pakistan cricket is any closer to solving this problem than it was immediately after the 2003 World Cup. This is inexcusable. The dilemma was highlighted by the farce of vice-captain Salman Butt being unable to hold onto his place. As Geoff Lawson has suggested, Pakistan need to choose two openers and give them a run. That could mean an opportunity for Butt and Yasir Hameed. All will be revealed tomorrow.

Just as depressing is the wicket-keeping slot. Kamran Akmal has performed miserably for over a year, right back to last year's tour of England when Bob Woolmer was calling in experts to help correct fundamental flaws in Akmal's glovework. Hardly a game goes by without Akmal making a major blunder. As much as everybody wills him to recover his form, can this really be the way to manage Pakistan's wicket-keeping position? Pakistan need to find a safe pair of hands behind the stumps and this has to be Akmal's last chance.

The bowling, despite the loss of Mohammad Asif, is the least troublesome, partly because Asif isn't quite as adept in one-day cricket as he is in Tests. If - and it is a gigantic if - Shoaib Akhtar can stay fit and free of trouble, a Pakistan pace attack of Akhtar, Umar Gul, and Sohail Tanvir or Rao Iftikhar Anjum has a more formidable look about it than one spearheaded by Asif, simply because Asif has yet to work out the variations in length and pace that are essential for success in one-day cricket on unhelpful wickets. Without Akhtar and Asif Pakistan will be in trouble.

Shahid Afridi is another bowling asset and Pakistan's most improved one-day bowler. But facing India's batsmen on home turf will be a genuine test of his development and his status as an international class leg-spinner. The Afridi conundrum continues in other areas. Views are divided between him opening the batting and batting lower down the order. Lawson's argument that his age determines he should not open doesn't hold water when you consider the age of Sanath Jayasuria, Matthew Hayden, and Adam Gilchrist.

Finally, Pakistan have missed another opportunity to appoint Afridi as one-day vice-captain. Younis Khan might make sense for Tests but in one-day cricket Afridi is a natural leader, and a sense of responsibility might even help his batting. Imagine vice-captain Afridi opening the batting against India?

However you look at it Pakistan are not quite ready for this tour of India. The team combination is unsettled. The captain has failed to translate his command of the Twenty20 arena into control over the longer versions of the game. And the South Africa tour brought with it an unwelcome tag of 'chokers.'

On the bright side, India have their own problems and Pakistan can learn from their bitter experience against South Africa. But the central problem for Pakistan cricket over the last decade is that it has failed to learn from mistakes and experiences. Until the organisation that is Pakistan cricket, and this includes the cricket board and the players, is able to become a learning organisation we will be discussing the same issues in a decade from now.

But the immediate challenge is India at home, and it will be a tough one. Let's see how quickly Malik and Lawson are able to learn.

Mr Abbasi has outlined some of the recent problems the team has faced quite succinctly. Most of us on this blog constantly offer our opinions and strategies as to how to make this team perform better. Some of us blame the captain, some of us blame the coach, some of us blame and selection of players, regionalism, batting order etc. Most of us though blame the system as a whole, citing lack of reason, common sense and meritocracy.


One aspect that is frequently sidelined, perhaps because it is implicit and not overt, is the lack of pride our players demonstrate nowadays. I once read a Younis Khan interview where he was asked why the team is so inconsistent. His reply was that the team has been as consistent as it ever was; the only difference is that nowadays a lot of cricket is being played which means that fans highlight the defeats too much and hence blame the players’ inconsistency. My view is that Younis is wrong. Why is there an absence of supreme, consistent performance in the team that was personified by greats such as Wasim, Waqar, Saeed Anwar, Rashid Latif, Moin Khan, Inzamam, Salim Malik, Saqlain, Mushtaq not too long ago? The reason is that now our players have realised that they can remain in the team and earn big money just by giving 75% of what they can offer to the team and to the nation. They are satisfied with the status quo and do not want to go the extra mile. The patriotism and passion to go the extra mile for your country is missing. Nowadays international cricket offers plenty of money and glamour. In today’s materialistic world, having lots of money means having lots of respect, beautiful women and plenty of alternative avenues for even more ridiculously extravagant moneymaking.


That is the one of the main reasons why our openers, Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, Kamran Akmal, Abdul Razzaq etc are not able to provide consistent performances and why our players suffer from lack of focus and poor form so much.
Yes, the PCB is to be blamed for not doing enough to ensure that the talent of youngsters is harnessed which is also one of the main reasons why we do not have a Saeed Anwar, Waqar, Wasim or even Inzamam in the team now. Asim Kamal was a rare find in that he showed unique skill and tenacity that can be associated with Miandad or Inzamam but unfortunately for whatever reason he is not in the team anymore.


Shifting the focus to this current series, I made an exception for players like Butt, Younis and Afridi a while ago. These players perform exceedingly well against India and they should be played in every match. Butt is a bit of a red herring now who has struggled against India’s left arm pacers like Pathan and Zaheer who can swing the ball away from the left hander. He has been unconvincing this year but it will be interesting to see how he handles India’s pace battery. I once had a discussion with Wasim Saqib where I informed him that it is strange how Butt always performs well in practice matches but always fails in the main international matches.
Afridi has a strong opening record against India and although I don’t support him opening in ODI’s, an exception will have to be made against India. I have been disappointed with Misbah’s performances since the T20 World Cup. His selection in the squad is highly questionable now that he failed in both Tests and ODI’s played at home. I know Asim Kamal is not a T20 player but it will make great sense if he is included in any ODI squad, on accounts of him being a left hander and having excellent pressure handling skills. When people are too content to put the rubber stamp on Asim saying he is “just a Test player” especially when he has never been tried for ODI’s, is it not about time we should put a rubber stamp on Misbah for being “just a T20” player too, especially because he has failed in both Tests and ODI’s recently?


You can expect anything from a Pakistan-India series but I feel inclined to say that Pakistan will find it hard to win any Test matches. In ODI’s it is anyone’s game really. India have some good youngsters now in Uthappa, Dhoni and Yuvraj plus Ganguly and Tendulkar are as good as anyone who ever played the game. India’s pace attack has improved as well with the likes of Zaheer and RP swinging the ball at a good pace. If it had not been for India’s impressive youngsters and the new and improved pace attack, I would have placed my bets on Pakistan.

Finally I want to make a point about Dravid. Dravid is easily in the top 5 batsmen in the world today. He averages more than Tendulkar in Tests and out-averages Tendulkar in seaming-friendly pitches of Australia, SA, NZ and England. He has been the captain of the team and is one of the most admired and respected cricketers in the world. Now he has been dropped for the first 2 matches in this series by the selectors. Did he hold any press conferences, bad mouth anybody or throw any tantrums? Compare his behaviour with how our under-performing players like Razzaq, Younis, Imran Farhat, Shoaib (in Shoaib’s case, under-performing as in, overall behaviour and lack of fitness as opposed to performance on the field) etc have behaved when their performances have been criticised by the PCB. I think our cricketers have a lot to learn from Dravid, not just learning related to batting skills.

First - Good Luck to Pakistan on this tour and hope they play great cricket. I also hope India wins. Next Pakistan's bowling is very formidable and their batting is not that bad as you are making it out to be. Pakistan always is a strong opponent against India. For India to beat Pakistan they have to put a good score on the board 275+ to put pressure and for Pakistan to beat India they need to take wickets at regular intervals.
Times have changed a little bit with Pakistan pace attack blowing India out of water. India can now face pace a little bit more confidently.
On paper both the teams are equally matched more or less but the game is not played on paper. Looking forward to a great series.

Kamran has already started preparing base or foundation for justifying defeat.And if Pakistan win it will be easier to say "I said so". Hang on Pakistan may defeat India or the....................obvious might happen too ;)

Thanks for highlighting Akmal's issue. It's strange that selectors can't find a keeper from so many teams playing in domestic circuit, are those teams are having keepers worst than Akmal?

Also, I think it’s fair to say that while growing up, I always saw Pakistan getting the better of India, be it in Sharjah or any other neutral venue (with the exception of the world cup games, of course!). Back then, we had an amazing team. But unfortunately, India hardly played any series against us, all on the pretext of the Kashmir issue, which I always thought was a lame alibi to not play 'cricket'. Now for perhaps, the first time in my life, the Indians have a pretty solid bowling line up along with an equally good batting side and have the opportunity to give us a real beating. Of course, things have now changed; the relations between the two great nations have significantly improved, India has had a good run in international cricket and importantly (read: conveniently) the Kashmir issue, has now been shoved out of the picture. Nevertheless, I completely agree with you Kamran bhai. Pakistan is definitely the underdog and all the players will have to play out of their skins to emerge victorious in this very important tour. On the upside, this team is very similar to the one that beat India on the previous tour to the country. So well, we can all hope for a similar result: S I think, Afridi, Younis, Akmal and Shoaib will all have to play sensibly and give it their best for the country. Let’s hope the ‘skilled rabble’ as Ian Chappel often puts it, comes together and gives the Indians a run for their money. InshAllah.

p.s. I'm also hoping that our players will learn for the mistakes they made in the SA series and won't repeat them on this tour!

Please do not mix politics and cricket.

The problem with Pakistan is its undue and pressurising reliance on Yousuf and Younis to take them to safety while batting as was amply evident against RSA. If they fail, through inexcusable modes like the run-out or otherwise, the rest of Pakistan's batting, with the probable exception of Shoaib Malik, just doesn't display the gumption required to bail the team out. The bowling appears far more balanced and reasonably settled, with an efficient spinner in Rehman, and a slightly inconsistent yet laudable crop of fast-medium bowlers. India start as indisputable favourites for both the series. The excitement and eagerness that would accompany viewers before the commencement of any Indo-Pak series doesn't exist this time around. The reason could be that this is the fourth time in four years that India and Pakistan are playing against each other, with Pakistan having competed twice at home against India,and India once on her own soil,till now.

I agree with a lot of things mentioned in the writing by kamran abbasi. Pakistan batting is adept at creating headaches for the coaches coming in due to their own method of playing cricket, at times, unnecessarily playing aggressive cricket and at times totally unnecessary closed in the shell non confident cricket. IT seems that paki batting knows no middle grounds. the two You's have to do the bulk of the scoring and if they fail which they can since they are humans then the batting gets into a dangerzone. Openning slots have been the pain in the neck for pakistan long enough now. Every possible combinition has been tried and yet of no avail. some say afridi is the best choice to open on the sub continent pitches which apprently seems the right thing to say and yet one knows afridi is'nt consistent. batting slots cannot be filled in with patches. That is simply not professional enough an attitude. secondly by sending afridi up the order the team lacks the solid hit out batsman in the lower order. Absence of Abdul Razzaq is big hole in that spot in my opinion. he is one of the most sensible hard hitting player when it comes to batting. His bowling, ofcourse is debateable but i still believe the guy deserves a place in the one day squad. Imran nazir, The other player tried several times in the opening slot, is at the height of unpredictability and yet so predictable. He has got classy talent in him but the problem ,as defined by the great Ian chappel, that he has all the excellent shots and extreme timing in his hands but with a head filled with absurd ideas. he is one of the most self desctructing player i have ever seen play international cricket. Misbah another reveletion for the paki cricket has yet to impart his impact on the games following the T20 glory that he attained. Minute scores like 18 16 21 etc provide a disappointing story. There has been reasonable progress in the fielding department for sure in the recent times yet it still remains in consistent. From the bowling point of view pakistan has a balanced attack. IF shoaib akhtar is able to sustain his playing condition for the whole series that yet remains to be seen. Rao iftikhar is one bowler i think has been undeservingly been out of the team. He is a good one day first change bowler. more like a stuart clarke mould but with more swing and a bit more pace on his day. he has always performed whenever included in the team and yet he disappears after every good performance mysteriously. Gul is imporiving himself everypassing day as a great international new and old ball bowler and his performances have been impressive all along in recent times. all n all pakistan does lack the professional approach in thinking when it comes to their batting and they need to work on it.

I am wrinting this just to get little relief for mind which got extremely depressed after news of attack on our judiciary and law by a dictator. Any way, I agree this is the time of learning and doing some positive experiments. There are three crucial positons where we need reliable players, 1- Wicket keeper batsman, I do not know why Akmal is being given so many mchances. Is there no any yong wicket keeper in domestic circuit who can be reliable? 2-Opening position which was never fulfilled after the retirement (by force) of Saeed Anwar.3- Number 6 position in batting order, Misbah was good in 20, he is basically 20 palyer. In his 8 innings agaist South Africa at home on relatively straight wickets, his performance tells itself about his talent. He is neither technically that perfect nor he his a young player who can be relaiable for the big matches. We should look at least for test matches some better young player, Asim Kamal has been good or any other for this position. Once Paksitan team was famous fro the late brust by lower order, after the removal of Abur Razaq we are completely lacking that ability. I belive in On-day Afridi should play at little ahead,if not at open then certainly at position 6 ahead of Misbah. Whatever the ability he has is wasted by putting him at No7 or 8. I can bet if in first one-day against South Africa had Afridi played that innings at No 6 or 7 instead of No 8, Pakistan would certainly have won that match.
Good luck for Pakistan cricket team and Pakistan nation

Sometimes i think pakistan will never learn. They put in a few good one day peroformances against south africa and everyone is thinking at last we are going places but then again the inconsistency and a lack of application is brought to the fore to lose 6 wickets for 20-30 runs is a real disgrace. Also i really liked afridi but he really showed us his true colours when he went for a 6 when pakistan needed 20 of 40 balls or so utterly disgraceful how can he be made vice-captain after that showing.

Yes..You are right mr.abbasi......Afridi should have been appointed vice-captain because of his aggressiveness and should lead the Pakistani team boldly BUT only in ODIs. India will most probably regret dropping Rahul Dravid because he averages high against Pakistan and might even strike form.....but yes of course....all this wont matter in an India-Pakistan match because always it come down to handling the pressure and a matter of a few runs.....but INSHALLAH Pakistan will win!

A time to learn and a time to thanks. Thanks to the General Saheb for not playing politics in cricket. Lucky for us the tour is on.

Malik says that the series defeat against SA at home has helped the team in pinpointing the deficiencies and weaknesses in the team. His comments were scrutinized and criticized by many. But, the reality is, a win always creates some kinda complacency. Whereas, a defeat puts you under pressure to reassess the situation and re-evaluate the strength and weakness and, Pakistan team has performed better when they are playing as underdogs. Everyone says that India has an edge over Pakistan, not only because of the home ground, home crowd situation. But, also because of their two consecutive wins in the twenty20 WC and, Pakistan ended as chokers and finally they borrowed that chokers tag from SA in the last ODI. This is mere criticism, if they win this series, no one will talk about them being chokers.

In my opinion it is due to the Inzamam factor that is missing here. This void, gap whatever one may call it, must be filled in either by Yousuf or Younus. In a situation like this, they have to play a long innings rather than playing irresponsibly after making a mere 50. Had one of them stayed till the end in the final ODI at Lahore, the result would have been different. Now, there is a theory, a story based on rumours that Malik & Co., deliberately lost the final match because, they did not want to give away all the credit to Shoaib Akhtar, who otherwise would have boasted that, whenever he comes into the team - the team wins!

I doubt, if there is any truth in this theory or there was any such intention among the players. But, those who believe in this theory were supporting their argument based on the irresponsible shots played by Younis and Yousuf, especially Yousuf getting out on almost a wide ball from Duminy. They argued that Malik himself played a very careless shot and got clean bowled and he showed no remorse, no regret after getting out. Misbah missed another opportunity. And, Afridi would never stop slogging under any situation. Even Tanvir played a reckless shot and almost got his toe fractured in trying to hit Morkel for a six on the first ball. Neither Rao ifti made any attempt to stay there and got out on the second ball for a duck.

I inquired: OK then, what happened to Shoaib Akhtar? If that was a plot against him then, why did he throw away his wicket like others? He could have remained patient and instead of going for a big heave and playing a mindless shot, he could have got those runs in singles, the target was only 14 runs from 23 balls, then why did he play a similar shot and got out on the first ball? The reply was, he wanted to repeat his 2003 WC cup performance against England when he scored his career best 43 with 4 - 5 sixes and a couple of boundaries, but he failed. These are all theories based guess work. The fact is, the team is lacking the killer instincts whereas, India on the other hand has developed this skill of fighting hard till the end and snatching a victory from the jaws of defeat.

There is a big talk going around all over and all the experts are airing the same views that, "This Pakistan teams lacks the punch." I think our pra Ashaq needs to remind the team of how to hit and where to punch like Muhammad Ali used to, or Inzamam used to stand like a great wall. I don't think this team is lacking in any talent, its the same team but, the mental strength is not the same. If Malik cannot inject that quality or demonstrate it through his leadership skills or even with his bat, then the so-called seniors must take control of the situation, they don't have to wear a Captain's hat for that. They only need to play the role of David by being cool and play till the end.

David and Goliath analogies are often used in the sports arena especially in tennis. I will make an attempt to use it in the game of cricket. It is important to know how David slew the giant Goliath by means of his cunning and shrewd planning and skill which he used by rejecting the offer of using an armour and a sword. Instead he equipped himself with nothing but, a sling and five smooth stones he had taken from a nearby stream.

Goliath mocked and cursed David, who calmly placed a stone in his sling and toppled the giant with his first shot. Unlike David, a bowler doesn't have to be able to topple his opponent with the first junk ball he bowls. He has to be persistent, pragmatic, practical, courageous, variant and must have faith in his abilities especially if he finds himself in a seemingly ill-matched contest against a player who threatens to overpower him, he must emulate David's coolness and calmness and show the comparable bravery and enterprise.

Experts are talking about a contest between Tendulkar &. Shoaib or, Sehwag Vs. Shoaib and, Afridi Vs. Irfan Pathanwa etc., and that would be very interesting to see how the events would unfold in time. Using that David & Goliath analogy I would like to elaborate my point further:

Shoaib Akhtar must remain pragmatic in his approach and must not try to exchange trade blows with Sehwag or Tendulkar because, you cannot win a slugfest contest with express deliveries alone. He has to be realistic in his approach and deploy an alternative weaponry like his slower ones, indippers and yorkers instead of his short pitched width balls on the off-side, they will disappear in the point and gully region or fly past the slips cordon.

Afridi and patience are antonyms but, he needs to understand that Irfan Pathan varies his pace, especially against Afridi. And Afridi needs to remember this and adjust to his pace, especially the first ball he faces from Irfan must be dealt with extreme caution. Its like a battle of nerves - a wicket or a six. Afridi needs to settle for blocking a few shots back during the early exchanges. He needs to get the feel of the wicket, and weigh the shots before going for the big ones. Watching your opponent wind up for a big shot can be mesmerizing and intimidating, but it's just a ball - concentrate on watching it right from the time it is delivered. Hold your horses or your ground, whatever it is and don't miss the line, put your body behind and use a straight bat. But this is asking too much from Afridi - hope sanity prevails for a few minutes while he is there on the pitch.

Umar Gul's variation is also very important, he usually rallies his yorkers with a steady rhythm that doesn't allow the batsmen to adjust, hence he must keep on varying the speed and deny them time and deny them rhythm to get into a stride. Mix up the pace and vary the speed and get the wickets. If Shoaib Akhtar can intimidate the other bowlers must capitalize and grab wickets.

No player can perform well if he doesn't have faith in his abilities. One needs to believe in his ability to execute a plan that he has in his mind. He needs to take his sling, ooops, I mean the cricket bat or the ball and stand up to adversity with the knowledge that all the physical presence Goliath could muster was no match for David's guile. Like there is a very thin line between sanity and insanity, the difference between a victory and defeat is often very narrow. More than David, Pakistanis need to remember the likes of Inzamams and the Miandads.

The Pakistan team's batting appears to be exceedingly frail with the honourable exceptions of the classy Yousuf, the efficient and committed Younis, and the all-round talents of Shoaib Malik. This is a cause for genuine worry. I deem that this undue dependence on them could pressurise them to a dangerous extent leading to their collapse. The bowling gives the impression of appearing to be reasonably settled, composed and at ease albeit inconsistent, which has been a hallmark of Pakistan cricket for long now. India definitely starts off as the favourite to emerge triumphant in both the series.

Kamran, you are right about Pakistan not learning from their mistakes. If they keep depending on Akmal, Nazir, Butt and Misbah; I'm afraid we will have the same disappointment. These four individuals should be removed [not dropped] from this team. They have been tried numerous times but they don't have the skills to improve their game.

Akmal cannot hold simple catches. He dropped Kallis again in the last ODI which again cost us the game because Kallis then scored 80 more runs. He dropped him in the Karachi Test, which also cost us the game. I think, we lost both the Test and ODI reason because of his heroics behind the stump. We have to give chance to new talent. Same is true with Nazir. He is like Afridi, he doesn't think before hitting a ball but he does not have the bowling talent.

Misbah is the biggest choker of the team. He has proved this in Twenty20 and the last ODI against South Africa. He cannot finish games. He should be replaced by Fawad Alam.

The two openers should be replaced by Khalid Latif and Khurram Manzoor. The selector can also include the Under-19 talent Ali Asad as an opener who can also keep wickets for ODI. If we can at least get rid of above individuals than there is some chance Pakistan cricket can improve. Its high time for Pakistan cricket and the selectors and team management need to take this brave decision.

Kamran, you are an eternal hopeful. I would start with your last lines that we will be discussing the same issues a decade from now. Will we?
I see Pakistan cricket following a downward spiral and it won't be far from now that we might hit the bottom.We used to pride ourselves on raw talent.That somehow is still trickling through the filters of selection committees to find its place in the national team sporadically. However,the lack of a basic cricketing structure will kill our cricket sooner or later.


We are falling behind in terms of fitness,strategy and technical know how of the game from the rest of the world and it might cost us the game in a manner similar to Hockey.


Lawson recently pointed out that the team needs 12 months to build the level of fitness required to compete in international arena. I found this statement rather bewildering as I thought fitness levels of our professional cricketers far better.


We go into games without having plans A,B and C. We don't work upon strengths and weaknesses of our opposition and we hardly execute the game plans effectively.The South Africa tour exposed the fundamental flaws that were temporarily coated by an impressive performance in the ICC World Twenty20. We thankfully accepted the tag of chokers from South Africans. Maybe we are better suited to it now after the 2 matches against India in Twenty20s and the recent one against SA where we couldn't finish off the game.


Talking about the Indian tour,we have taken five openers, three middle order batsmen and one wicketkeeper, which is quite amusing. Akmal will continue to give us heart attacks. There is no replacement for the middle-order batsman if one of them gets injured by bad luck. I think the place of Misbah shouldn't be an automatic one because he hasn't been able to translate his Twenty20 performances to the longer versions of the game and I doubt that he is capable of doing so. Imran Nazir, has he not been playing off and on in the Pakistani Greens for over 6 years now? Do we still have suspicions of him transforming into a future Tendulkar? We are shy of giving new talent a chance and are operating a revolving door policy in which we have been seeing the same bunch of players being tried in turns.Do you have to keep on trying the same players for 5-6 years?


I am not sure of the stocks of Sohail Tanveer in the Test cricket.It will be interesting to see how he performs in that area.


Another major factor in our failure is that our players and management lack a desire to learn from mistakes as you rightly pointed out Kamran, Asif has been on international stage since over a year now.He hasn't enjoyed the kind of success in ODI format as what he achieved in Tests. You have very expertly pointed out the reasons for that but we haven't seen any improvement in him in the ability to bowl yorkers and change his pace that has almost become a necessity for success in ODIs nowadays. Similarly Akmal has time and time again showed his unwillingness to work upon his mistakes and learn.


There are others who have better attitude.The credit goes duly to Younis and Yousuf who have developed themselves into solid world-class batsmen by hard work and commitment.I wish the team a successful tour but I am afraid we might lose in rather shameful way.

I think the current Pakistan team lacks experience and mature heads. The loss of Inzamam without getting the right replacement has caused brittleness to the Pakistan batting. So many times recently they have thrown away games right from their grasp. Players like Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf should take more responsibility now, which is surprisingly missing. Misbah is caught in jinx - getting out at the wrong moment. Afridi is doing well as a bowler but now he also should show some responsibility as batsman. Pakistan has a definite edge over India as far as allrounders are concerned.

This team is very similar to the previous one that toured India in 2005. However, one massive difference is that Inzamam is no longer around. I know that Khan Sahab and a few others thought that Inzi was indolent and defensive and though I agree with them that Inzamam was indeed, not the most high-spirited player around; I also think he was a terrific match winner who often held the team together in difficult and strenuous situations. I have to borrow Shoaib Malik’s favorite word here, for Inzamam was a ‘superb’ finisher who very rarely succumbed to the pressure of chasing a big total albeit on flat tracks, as was evident in his match winning knock at Ahmedabad. To be fair, credit should be given to Javed A. Khan who raised this very point in one of his posts a couple of threads back. I would just like to add on the comments made by Javed, that in the vacuum created by Inzamam’s absence, the likes of Yousuf, Afridi and the other late-order batsmen [I think Razzaq would have been very ‘effective’ here] will have to jump in and learn to not do a Sachin a la Chennai [1999] and take the team beyond the finish line. I think our chances of winning this series depend very heavily on our batsmen not throwing it away when set, in addition to the role that will be played by Afridi [provided he continues to come at 7-8] and Misbah.
I also look forward to hearing the views of those living across the border and posting ‘acceptable’ rebuttals in collaboration with Awas, Wasim, Jam Jar, Khan Sahab, Javed Khan, and Euceph Ahmad, during the course of this serie. It’s going to be a cracker, in every aspect of the word.

I think Pakistan's bowling attack without Asif is not as weak as many of you perceive. They have much more variety than the Indian bowlers. Afridi is in top bowling form. Akhtar is raring to go.
It is the batting that worries me the most. On bowling-friendly wickets, only younis and yousuf will be able to survive unless other batsmen stop playing their needless rash shots at crucial times.

Good to see Kamran Abbasi back in business!!

Well…I disagree with Kamran that Afridi is a natural leader for one-day games and he should have been appointed vice captain for shorter version of the game. In my humble opinion, Afridi should have been the captain for the next 5 years regardless of game version. He is the only natural leader we have at the moment. The rest are all less than ordinary stuff.Anyway, the series is going to be very interesting, no doubt about that.

HI everyone. I agree with all your points kamran. and regarding the openers and wicket keeper. Also with tirmizi points regarding imran nazir and misbah . there are certain players who now had long time playing at national level and our bosses at PCB want them to continue. Imran nazir, salman butt, kamran akmal , muhammad hafeez ( atlast drop out). all these players dont deserve to be any sort of team in pakistan. Looks at Kamran performance for last 2 years how many catches he drops who cost the matches for pakistan. Whenever some people talk about certain players people here thought they are playing regionalism but thatz not the part. on the one side selectors saying that asim kamal have to perform at the domestic level and on the other side they are picking players on there past performance like imran nazir and salman butt . I am not talking regionalism here. i am just saying if we take a neutral view we found certain players even from the punjab or any place deserve to be in team but not in the team. this mean we are on favoritism more rather than performances. I am just certain to say we need openers khalid latif and yasir hameed to give long run. we need shahid yousuf ( if we go on domestic he got more performance than misbah) and asim kamal in place of misbah( only can play 20 20) to strengthen middle order, Sarfraz ahmed should be in place of kamran akmal. what lawson say we need 12 months to settle this team thats what woolmer said about the openers which never been settle. Dont play favoristim for GOD sake thinks of pakistan than other things. dont trust player who already be find themselves untrusty in the field. Every one know about Muhammad Wasim how he been treated by PCB even though one of the best player in the V area. so people dont take it on regional make it on positive side. Khalid Latif, Yasir Hameed , Shahid yousuf, Asim kamal, Sarfraz Ahmed deserve to be in team in place of Salman Butt, Imran Nazir, Misbah, Kamran Akmal. If you want openers stick with khalid latif and yasir hameed for 12 months you will see how much they talented yasir hameed already have good talent he always show.

MR. Javed ahmed and Mr Wasim Saqib and all other bloggers thinks its regionalism i dont think so.

bye.

Definitely this pak team lacks punch, but who knows memories of hard rivalry may bring back their best. Since most of the matches here will start early around 8:30(IST) .. which means first an hour or so is going to be crucial .. and there i think pak team has upper hand when they bowl first. So more than middle order clash .. i think its going to be early hour clash .. where technique is going to be count ... so again Sachin is going to be crucial in this series. Now a days he is playing really control aggressive inning when the bowl is doing a bit .. but i suspect other batsmen specialy in the absence of dravid.
Whereas if India bowl first its easy for them to remove their openers but they need to go past their openers. Their main batting is yousuf and yunois. Lets see the first match before throwing many assumptions .. as i already did ;)

I don't know if I will be able to enjoy and watch the matches given the current serious political turmoil in Pakistan, I don't want the series to distract the Pakistanis from the Political situation in Pakistan as it is more important. The timing of the current attack on civil liberties has been thought of carefully so that people stay in their homes and watch the series between India and Pakistan and do not take to streets.

I am sure that the instructions to the team will be to win at all costs so that it further creates interest amongst general public so that they get distracted from the political turmoil. I will not be surprised if we see a different Pakistani team on the field, although the players and the captain will be under immense pressure to win the series as failure in India and Pakistan series often cuts the career of players short so I am sure we will not see any player under performing especially the senior players they will give their 100%. Shoaib Malik knows that if he loses this series his captaincy days will be over as failure is not an option, I can only hope that he gets full support from Afridi and Younis Khan as both of them have failed him on several key moments in the last series.

The opening problem still remains and I understand that the management wants to give these players a run, Salman Butt might score against India as he has scored against them in the past, I don't think that we will see any improvement in Imran Nazir or Kamran Akmal as both of them lack temperament and technique their success will largely depend on their luck.

Pakistan's batting will largely depend upon Younis Khan, Yousuf, Malik and Misbah. I will not include Afridi in this list as it will be a wishful thinking, if he performs with the bat it will be a bonus. In Bowling Pakistan will depend greatly on Shoaib Akhtar and Afridi with Umar Gul and Rao providing support. One thing which worries me is that in the recent past Pakistan has been dependant on their spin bowlers to contain and to take wickets and Indians are really good players of spin, our chances of success will largely depend on how our spin bowlers bowl.

The Indian team is also not free of problems, their batting line up is no longer as formidable as it used to be , Dravid is not in the team and Sachin and Gunguly are way past their prime, they will also largely depend upon youth, but they have some exciting new batsmen, it will be interesting to watch how they hold up against Pakistan's bowling attack, their new batsmen failed to perform against Australia so there is a hint of fragility in their batting line up also and it would be interesting to see if our bowlers are capable of exploiting it or not.

Indian's if they have really improved somewhere it's their bowling, their bowling has a lot of variety and almost all the bowlers are in good form, Rp Singh has improved a lot he has gained extra pace and he can move the ball both ways, Similarly Srisanth also is bowling at a good pace although he falters on the line and length periodically but he brings in a lot of energy.
Zahir khan and Harbajan Singh will be the key bowlers for India in the ODI series.

Overall both the sides are quite even India has a home advantage, but if Pakistan's big 4 batsmen if they perform well then it will be very hard for India to beat us. Pakistan for sure will miss Inzimam, his cool and calm presence with an amazing ability to score at a decent pace against any bowler will be greatly missed, but then again India will also be missing Rahul Dravid.

The problems highlighted by you, Kamran are running through the minds of every Pakistani fan. At the same time I would agree with Lawson that they should pick an opening pair with the greatest potential and run with it. In Pakistan's case we don't have alot of options and Yasir and Salman are the best opening combination we have as far as talent goes after that we need to stick it out with them and check their learning curve to see them grow and become formidable openers. Also with the problem of Kamran Akmal we may be able to strike 2 birds with one stone. For those who don't know, Kamran was a specialist batsman who took up wicket keeping to improve his chances of getting into the national team. And I think the reason why his keeping has dipped is because he doesn't get to do alot of what he loves most which is bat. He's been consistently giving us lower order 15s and 30s and I'd rather have Akmal come in to open and give us that early momentum which is always crucial for the Pakistani line-up. Also I feel if they stick it out with Akmal they are going to find a formidable opener in him. He is agressive, yet has a very orthodox style and his performance against a moving ball in Karachi against India proves he has the ability to play the moving ball better than other Pakistanis. Therefore if you're looking at the top 3 batsmen of the line-up you can open with Akmal and Butt and have Yasir come in at 1 down. Misbah is going to have to sit on the bench, Pakistan should play positive cricket and should bat top heavy and not go down with middle order trenchmen who may be sublime at chasing but we need our batsmen to play positively and aggressively and for that we need run-makers who create momentum.

they say all-rounders win games(actually they dont i made that up)
but in a sense they do
we have the edge as far as allrounders are concerned
and batting...people say that because of people like tendulkar india have the edge but to be honest if u look at these guy's recent record its not extraordinary...its not like theyre still a formidable force...its just the reputation theyve made that still carries them and if pakistan can brush aside the reputational advantage india have(which surely they shud) then we should repeat what we did 2/3 years back in india
as far as bowling goes...i'll not even start...we are just too far ahead of india
anyway pakistan team dissappoints more than it amuses so fingers crossed

i just want to say that pak is under much more pressure in this series mainly due to the fact that they lack true class batsmen.
India possess some legends in the team such as Dravid,Ganguly and Tendulkar. Pakistan on the other hand only have Yousuf. It is obvious that pakistan will miss the class and cool head of inzi since he helped them win and save important matches the last time pak toured. Apart from Yousuf, thy don't hav any reliable batsmen, Shoaib Malik can contribute with 40/50 runs at times and Younis occassionally fires. Apart from those people, pak hav no one. The opening pair will continue to be pathetic no matter how many times the management try to chop and change it we shud jus accept the fact that the openers cud only contribute 15/20 runs max. AT the bottom we hav the madman afridi . Although he is entertaining , it could not be ignored that he plays well in 5 of the 100 matches . this is one of the reasons as to why i don't feel he shud be appointed captain or vice captain. He continues to play selfish cricket in which he duzn't care abt the team but bats in a crazy sense jus to live up to his reputation
The only thing tht could save us is our bowling which appears to be strong as long as shoaib akthar duzn't do anything crazy again...
anyway i am hoping beyond hope that pak win and even if thy do lose thy shud lose thy shud lose 3/2
Indian fans appear to be very confident, in my opinion they have every right to be so
GOOD LUCK PAKISTAN!!

This Pakistan team is not likely to achieve much on the tour to India. I agree with Khan Sahib on this blog. The problem is a) mental and b) complacency in the fact that the players know that even if they do not perform, they could still be in the side/squad.

It is clear to see that Akmal is not learning from his mistakes (crucial ones in that they resulted in series defeats from a much superior SA side - imagine if they had lost the series against this unimpressive Pakistan side). It is clear that Imran Nazir and Yasir Hameed are not any more professional or matured, it is clear that Misbah-ul-Haq cannot finish off games. I think it is the right time to jettison these players and get some newer faces in, Malik might be able to handle those people better. Aside from the bowling unit, the team needs wholesale changes from Number 1 through Number 7 (except Shoaib Malik, Younis and Yousaf). Afridi should be made the ODI captain at least for six months to a year, otherwise he will need to go too! Better to have young blood battsmen get whipped into an international force rather than keep persisting with junk immature batsmen who can't learn from their mistakes. In short Pakistan remain a good bowling side with lousy batting unit, who if their key batsmen fail, are unlikely to chalk up victory. I still remian a Pakistani fan and hope Pakistan wins at least the Test matches. I don't think they have a hope in the ODIs.

First and foremost, the issue about Kamran Akmal's wicketkeeping. Firstly, I would like to point out that however bad his wicket keeping may be, his the owner of a very joyous and bouyant character and always keeps his spirits up, chatting, laughing, and smiling all the time. This in turn helps the other players as he keeps giving them encouragement, tips, and keeps up the banter.

Secondly, about Afridi. Certainly, Shahid Afridi is an adept batsman, and, looking at recent form, a very adept bowler. However, he can be, as we all know, very inconsistent. Look at the blistering score in the first ODI and the disappointing three-ball duck in the second one. His major problem is that if he faces three good balls he comes under amazing pressure and crumbles, giving his wicket away to a loose shot.

Thirdly, Asif is in many ways better than Akhtar, Asif plays for his country, while Akhtar plays for himself.

Lets try Afridi and Butt as openers for a bit. This allows Pakistan to play an additional specialist seamer or spinner.

Khan Sahab brings up quite an interesting point regarding the team’s consistency, and Younis Khan’s point of view about it. I was looking at the team list during the final match against South Africa and six out of the 11 players playing that match were either in the team due to bowling or had started off their careers as bowlers later turning into batsmen. The seventh player was Kamran Akmal, who could hardly be called a model of consistency. Of the two “native” batsmen that played that game, Yousuf and Younis, Younis cannot be called a consistent player in the one-day format, and that leaves us with the openers. I don't have to say anything about their consistency. For a team to be consistent, it needs to have at least six specialist batsman, the kind of batsmen that can hold down an end and are primarily batsmen by trade. If we have six primary batsmen, we may not win matches in spectacular fashion, but we will not lose matches that we were not supposed to lose. The team will be more predictable, and you will know what to expect in a given situation. As they say, 'batsmen save matches', and that is the primary and single most important bit of foundation that a team needs.
In the present circumstances, however, we do not have a move towards that goal. We cannot find six batsmen that are primarily batsmen that can occupy a space in the team in international cricket . So, I expect much of the same to continue for some cricket in years to come. i.e winning some matches that we are not supposed to win, but far more often losing matches that we are not supposed to lose.

Kamal sahab, kamaal post. I took a while to read through. Decades ago, we would marvel at Pakistan's ability, mind you as a smaller country than ours [India], to put forth a never ending number of great players, as we lamented our country's inability to do the same. If Pakistan is indulging young players like Kamran Akmal, something is very wrong, and if India is blitzing our big 3, right or wrong, then the roles have been reversed. Either way, both teams can win on any given day. Personally, I think the India -Pakistan cricket scenario is a media driven. Still, one looks forward to a good contest.

I think Pakistan should make some bold decisions. They have to drop inconsistent performers and inject some young blood. Salman Butt, Yasir Hameed, Shahid Afridi, Misbah-ul-Haq and Kamran Akmal are all inconsistent performer and they should do something to find their replacements. We have backup as there are lot of players who are playing consistently in Under-19 and also with the A team

Many people are saying that India have a slight edge over Pakistan, but that is not quite the case. India have an amazing batting line-up but Pakistan have the likes of Yousuf, Malik, Afridi and Younis. I think Younis should open with Butt, with Misbah at No. 3, then Yousuf, Akmal, Malik and Afridi. Abdul Razzaq will be missed. He is a great allrounder. The selectors have wasted the talent of Asim Kamal. We should forget guys like Hafeez and Nazir. Our bowling attack is a consolation, if only Shoaib remains fit for the Tests. Hameed and Kamal should be recalled. There is no need for Misbah. We only need one spinner, Afridi can be the second, and the fast bowlers for the Tests should be Akhtar, Asif and Gul. Who knows, we might even emerge victorious. Good luck Pakistan, but please don't get your hopes up, we might have a very embarrassing and forgetful time in India.

I think this contest will come down to the survival of the fittest. Shoaib Akhtar needs to remain calm and not be intimidated by the crowd or the likes of Yuraj or Dhoni. He should bowl yorkers and slow balls and mix his pace. I wish Pakistan would have taken Sami in Asif's absence. He may only take one or two wickets in Tests, but he definitely bowled with pace against the ill-fated match against Ireland. His pace would have definitely came in handy in ODIs. I am not sure about Afridi's batting as I have been saying in my previous comments that he performs in one match and then fails in another. I think Pakistan should have made him a vice-captain just to get the best out of him. I also believe that one of the reasons for Pakistan's failure was the management decision to make Salman Butt the vice-captain. He was not even a regular player in both forms of the game - his batting was pathetic. Not sure what was the criteria used to pick a vice-captain who was not even a regular in team, who had not played for almost a year. I think that Younis and Afridi had felt this more than any other player and their performances in the critical matches have shown that. Its only when Younis was made an acting captain when Shoaib was absent from field that he showed his real performance. Granted Younis did not want to become captain, it was foolish to name Salman Butt as the vice-captain. Although I was not in favor of Afridi as captain, I would have liked him to be the vice-captain instead of Butt. Although India's bowling showed a lot of promise against Australia in ODIs, I still believe Pakistan's bowling has an edge. If only their batsmen including Misbah and Malik can hold their nerves. I would like to see Afridi open in those ODIs in which Pakistan is chasing a target, but play in middle order when Pakistan bats first. I think he could do less damage that way even he gets out cheaply. Also maybe Pakistan should shuffle Misbah's position too, half of the time he comes when Pakistan is in trouble. He is half sure about his shots and shows his vulnerability outside the off stump. In the end, I would like to wish good luck to Pakistan and hope they come home victorious. Pakistan really needs something positive right now to lift nation's spirits.

Agreed with all of the opinions put in Kamran's column but I wouldn't second making Afridi the vice-captain for ODIs. The vice-captain should be a responsible player for which Younis is a better choice , just recall how Afridi got out in the last ODI against South Africa. I think he is in the team not only as a bowler but as an allrounder.

Kamran,a very well thought out article.The recent happenings in pakistan is bound to have some concern in the minds of players which may affect their performance.Pakistan should sort out their opening problem.As far as bowling is concerned,they are much better off even without asif.Batting wise, they have MY & YK & both are solid.Overall, pakistan team is much better off than india.Selectors ,here, have done a great blunder in dropping dravid which is welcome from the PAK's point of view.The dropping was purely a vengence from V(ENGENCE) SARKAR & THE BOARD IS SITTING QUIET.HAD IT BEEN SACHIN,THEY WOULD HAVE SACKED VENGS BY NOW.POLITICS IN BCCI IS MUCH WORSE THAN PCB.NO OTHER COUNTRY WOULD HAVE EVEN THOUGHT OF THE IDEA TO DROP A PERSON OF RAHUL'S CALIBRE,& IT CAN HAPPEN ONLY HERE.THE REASON AS KHANSAHAB MENTIONED THAT DRAVID IS A GENTLEMAN & HIGHLY DIGNIFIED& HENCE EASY TARGET.ANYWAY INDIA'S LOSSS IS PAKISTAN'S GAIN & PLAYERS ACROSS THE GLOBE HAVE CRITICISED HIS OMMISION.
It is high time k.akmal is dropped or he will cost pakistan many more matches.

At the time of writing this post, Pakistan has posted a ‘competitive’ 239. Ramiz and Bruce are of the opinion that this is a below average score but I think otherwise. I think the pitch is definitely a lot slower than it looks; in the sense that the ball isn’t really coming onto the bat. Nevertheless, Pakistan will have to bowl and field, ‘exceptionally’ well in order to put pressure on a strong Indian batting line up. I believe Yuvraj (if we manage to get there) along with Afridi and Rehman will all have significant roles to play for their respective teams.
What I would like to say though is that Arun Lal has easily and successfully at that, taken the role of being the most annoying commentator from our very own ‘Zaheer Abbas’. I sometimes feel that Arun fails to realize that there are TWO teams out there, not just ‘his’ side. It would help, if he looked at things from an all round perspective. I wonder where decent, eloquent and fair commentators like Sunil and Sanjay have disappeared: S
I also think that Pakistan is missing Razzaq’s presence in the last few overs. I believe 'that' is essentially the reason, why Yousuf and Misbah were reluctant to go for the big hits at the end of the 42nd- 43rd over, for they knew very well that the likes of Abdul Rehman would be unable to hit the big ones. In hindsight (Even though, we're only half way through this game), our selectors have dented Pakistan badly with their biased and politically motivated selection policy.

Khan Sahab

I dont know why you have written Afridi's name in the inconsistent players' list. Afridi has a bowling average of 22 at 4.1 runs per over and a batting average of over thirty with strike rate in 150's this year. Do you call this inconsistent?
I think he is the most consistent performer along with Mohd. Yusuf in onedayers these days.

Cant agree more with Mr. Javed A. khan here. We are missing Inzi and its more so because we haven't chosen someone in his place on whom we could rely. Misbah is not a bad player but he is certainly not a replaceent for Inzamam. I've said earlier that we need soeone in Inzi's place who can have a long carrier, not only because of the current situation of the middle order but also because yousuf wont be playing for another 10 yrs. Younis Khan is the most unreliable player in the team, so I think we definitely need someone solid and young like Shahid Yousuf maybe to take the three down place.

It is most unfortunate that we haven't been able to find good openers and we are still persisting with Kamran Akal with the gloves. I dont know what kind of 'sifarish' he has (must be a big parchee) for him to be out of form for so long and still having a place in the international side. We must try new faces and try them now, we need atleast 4 of them(2 openers, a wicketkeeper and a middle order batsman), otherwise the future looks quite dark to me.

I assumed that Pakistan team will play out of their skins but so far they have played strangely defensive cricket,Younis Khan played again his signature innings got his well set partner run out and then played an extremely slow innings of 25 of 58 balls at a strike rate of 41.10, and ruined the platform which Salman Butt layed, Yousuf also played a selfish innings he should have scored much quicker although a late charge by him increased his strike rate but his effort might have been useful for the team if he had scored a bit more quickly.As a result Pakistan ended up scoring at least 40 runs less than what they should have scored on this pitch.

Lately we are seeing a pattern if our openers fail to score the middle order batsmen Yousuf and Younis they score a decent 50 or 40 odd runs each and get out soon after that and if the openers lay a good foundation then they start their innings very slowly and in the process we always see a run out and in the end the lower order batsmen are left under a lot of pressure.I believe Misbah Ul haq or Shoaib Malik one of them should come at #3 position, as we are not utilizing their potential properly both these players know how to pace their innings and we should utilize them more properly.
Now it is all up to Pakistan's bowling if they can restrict India below 240,the target is not easy as on this ground only twice a team has scored over 250 runs the wicket is slow and is turning it all depends on how Pakistan bowlers bowl on this Pitch.

The reason Pakistan was persisting with Kamran Akmal was the hope that his batting might spark again. If batting is now considered as an important criteria in choosing a wicket-keeper, then why dont the selectors give Yasir Hameed a try behind the wickets? He has been a keeper before, and he is definitely one of the best upcoming batsman - just look at his international averages.

"Yasir Hameed should open with Butt" - so says Imran Khan and I. Hameed is very consistent, has the best technique and is probably the best Pakistani opener. Butt's flair is more like Saeed Anwar's than any other Paki opener right now. Butt has loads of talent, but he needs to fix his mental strength a lot more and he can surely become a World Class opener.

PS: Pakistan is better off without Asif in ODIs. But definitely need him in Tests.

A question to Javed A Khan of montreal - how do you write with BOLD letters?

This is the weakest Pakistan team that has ever toured India. They hence automatically start as underdogs.

A new captain, A new coach, A hastily assembled squad and the turmoil back home simply does not auger well for the prospects of this team.

Ijaz Ahmed, Wasim Akram, Salim Malik, Inzamam Haq, Moin, Anwar, Waqar, Aquib Javed and Saqlain were exceedingly skilled than this batch of 2007. No contest involving these former greats was ever lopsided.

While we all agree that Pakistan is rebuilding its team and the results should start to show up with passage of time, my crystal ball cannot help predicting a whitewash in India's favour in both tests and in the shorter format. But we have always admired the Pakistan team's remarkable ability to rebound in the past when down in the dumps. We would like to see an encore of the same please.

And where in the hell is that mightily talented Yaseer Hamid?

Shahid Khan Afridi, well I agree that he is a gamble for us and as they say, ‘Juwa Kissi Ka Na Huwa’, but at least he can make a space for himself due to his bowling or fielding, if not batting. This ‘Khan’ will never change no matter what, therefore, the trick, for captain and coach, lies in appropriately utilizing a “Bad Asset”. Idially speaking, he should always open the innings, but he may play at no. 6/ 7 when we are batting first, because there will not be any pressure at 6/ 7, but when we are chasing, Afridi, should only open or play at top order, because if the game went on to no. 6/ 7 when we are chasing a target, there is bound to be pressure, and he knows only one way to play.

I am neither Punjabi nor from Karachi, so I can comfortably say that the BIGGEST problem we have is the ‘Punjabi Lobby’ Versus the ‘Karachi Lobby’. Both these sides are puling the bloody team to parts…… and for now Punjab is definitely winning.

Another serious problem is that for all these years we have been saying that we have “Talent” in Pakistan, but it seems now we have absolute dearth of new talent. If we seriously give it a thought, we do not have any reliable and good Keeper, Spinners, Openers, Fielders and Batsmen (except Yousuf), so our only hope is on Fast Bowlers (IF they played for the whole series).

The problems are many and hopes ..… not any.

On the positive note, well we Pakistani are “HOPE-FOOL” people !!

As an Indian fan,I dont think Pakistan should make this tour. Simply because of the turmoil in Pakistan [they'll be affected mentally because of friends/family back home] and also, because this Pakistan team is a shambles in terms of its planning and preparation.
I want India to beat a fully fit,fully charged and full strength Pakistan.
That would be ideal, but I'll take any victory over our biggest rivals.
I predict 2-0 India in the Tests.
ODIs slightly tougher to call, but since India won the first ODI today, I'm going to go 3-2 India in the ODIs.

After bearing a world cup final loss to India, I'm sure we can bear a white-wash!? Yup, it's on it's way. Enjoy!

Hearing Shoaib Malik speak at the post match presentation was very touching. Very rarely do we see a captain speak with such a lack of confidence or conviction.

Peronally I feel that Malik's position as a captain is very precarious. He bats at no 6 and bowls a few overs of mostly friendly off spin.And he isnt exactly a tactician either. More often than not he lets the game drift away at crucial junctures.Purely as a player he is not exactly irreplacable.

Shoaibs comeback is most exciting. The pointlessly long run up, the theatrical accusing stare towards the sky, the hand on hips grimace..ah we did miss him..
And then he runs straight into the hoardings and does his best impresion of a bleeding-to-death hero in a bollywood blockbuter. We must appreciate the effort he puts into his act ,atleast.

Hi Kamran,

I think you are reading too much into Pakistan's recent slump against South Africa. Based on that performance alone Pakistan cannot be rated as underdogs. By that logic India has not done any better. They lost 4-2 to Australia. It is a different thing that Australia is far superior to South Africa but still a defeat is a defeat. However yes Pakistan would be under lesser pressure if they are labelled underdogs. It worked last time in 2004 and it might work this time around as well.

I just finished watching India Pakistan first ODI and believe me I am no longer really excited on seeing either of the teams take on each other anymore. I mean there was a time in 1980s and 90s when it real tesnion and excitement everytime these two teams courted each other on a cricket field. it is missing this time.

Few reasons for it. I think neither of the teams has real solid characters in the teams any more. Gone are the days when there used to be certain Javed Miandad Khan to needle opposition when even he didnot have a bat in his hand. People like Manoj Prabhakar,Aamir Sohail, Salim Malik,Kiran More they may not have been best of cricketers but they were great characters.

Some people might say that Shoaib is there, Sreesanth is there and Bhajji is also there but these guys dont really bring that much of a flair. I mean with Shoaib you can never be sure whether he would bowl the next over or not. He was a big threat to India in late 1990s and early years of this century but I guess now his meance is gone.

Sreesanth needs to walk all his talk and so far in short carreer except couple of outstanding spells he has done nothing to change my notion about him that he talks more and delivers less.

Also in last decade and first 5 yerrs of this century both the teams had several class acts and some other players who otherwise ordinary players tended to perform better than their potential against their arch-rivals.

India had Sachin,Azhar,Dravid,Ganguly,Kumble,Sehwag and Srinath all in their prime. Then there were ordinary players like Venkatesh Prasad, Sidhu,Robin Singh who raised their game against Pakistan.

Similarily Pakistan has Akram, Waqar, Anwar,Inzy,Yousuf Youhana aka Mohd. Yousuf, Razzaq, Saqlain and of course a much more mentally balanced Shoaib Akhtar.

I mean at that time a Sachin-Akram or Azhar-Saqlain or Inzy-Kumble duel had really some meaning. All the pairs were in prime form.

Now what do we have Sachin-Akhtar or Sehwag-Akhtar duel!!

Sachin is past is expiry date, Shoaib is never fully fit and is at certain times an over rated threat (Pace is very critical but not everything) and Sehwag the less is say about him the better.

I also saw too much of camaradeire and friendly spirit in between the teams. That is alright but when keep outside the ground. We want to see some hard cricket and some sledging (though no personal/family/religious or racial abuses) as well. A couple of exciting altercations won't hurt any one seriously. It would really add to color. I really wanted India to beat Aussies because of all that stuff that was floating in the papers but with Pakistan the same zeal is missing. I mean honestly for the first time I won't mind too much if we loose to Pakista this time around.Some needling,some hositility from both the sides is needed certainly.

Finally India and Pakistan need to seriously re build their teams. Instead we are seeing the same old worn out faces again and again.

There is so much of bullshitting in Pakistan about young players. Guys playing for 5-6 years keep on failing and then as a part of musical chairs keep on coming back on the pretext of youth policy. Being an Indian I should not ideally be commenting on state of Pakistani cricket as it is basically an internal matter but a strong Pakistan team is in interest of World cricket.

In India they are too scared of a severe political backlash if they drop some one like Sachin or Ganguly from the team. And then this arrogance: "Why do we need a coach"? Those guys have gone nuts..total nuts.

I also guess India Pakistan series should atleast have a 30 month gap so that the excitement stays in. otherwise it may be the case of killing the goose that laid golden eggs.

Best of luck to both teams though I hope India wins. But really this series is gonna be a drab affair.

Regards.

Ruchit.

Probably I am may one of the first to post this after the first ODI. An ardent India supporter, I also enjoy when Pakistan play. It is sad to see Pak criket in such a turmoil.
All said and done about team composition and balance on both sides(which is similar on both sides), the bottom line is mental toughness which is the single most dividing thing between success and defeat. For Pakistan it is alarming that the captain seems to have lost it.He had a thougt block and left Dhoni & Yuvaraj clatter his spinners all over the ground. He did not attempt to change any bowling or fielding conditions and this cost them the match.India has become mentally tough because of Dhoni. He is a no-nonsense non-fearing individual and this reflects in his batting and also rubs onto his players. The players self belief rises and then they snatch victory from defeat. Pakistan has to change the captain (under present circumstances Afridi is the only person who can give headaches to India).

Kamran, God knows how many more matches it will cost Pakistan before 'good for nothing' Younis khan and Kamran Akmal will be dropped.
I can't believe that a player (Yunis Khan) is selected just because he claps on every ball and throws smile for no reasons.
I feel pity to see Shoaib Malik at the presentation ceremony. I tried my level best but I can't see him to be a 'Captain Material' from any angel.
God be with Pakistan Cricket.

What a boring match it was .... Shoaib malik needs to know how to defend low scoring total ... attack doesnt mean more fielders inside the circle ... he needs to place fielders in catching positions.
Lets hope remaining matches will be quite competitive.

Reflection on the 1st Ind v Pak ODI:

The Pakistan side has no equilibrium, there is no balance. It's a bottom-heavy team with one few specialist batsmen and too many bowlers!

Opening the batting and not scoring any runs will do nothing to bolster Akmal's already fragile confidence and place in the team. Why not open with Butt and Hafeez, drop Akmal down the order to 7 or 8. Drop Rehman as Hafeez can bowl spin (along with Afridi and Malik). Drop Rao Anjum and bring in Asif when fit.

As a Pakistan supporter (albeit a very hesitant one these days) my ardent wish is for a sound thrashing on this tour. Only when we lose to India will the selectors make changes that are so obvious it is painful that they cannot see them. On the batting front we had one weakness, now we have two. First it was only the openers now its both the openers and a finisher. I think we have been looking for Misbah to play this role due to his experience in the 20/20, well he was not quite able to finish in the 20/20 and he looks woefully out of touch here. I agree with the thinking of promoting Afridi to 5 so that he can bat with a Yousuf or a Younis. I think Malik needs to taken on the responsibility of finishing, I dont think there is any room for Misbah in the side. For the next match drop Misbah and Rehman replace with Hameed and Fawad Alam. Rehman will never trouble the Indian middle order he is too scared to flight the ball and it was pathetic how badly he was out bowled by Kartik. If Rao bowls like he did today, again, then Tanvir should come in. Akhtar looks very unfit but he bowled well.

Akmal, well the less said the better.....

Mohd Yousuf played inning for him self, very selfish innings. I agreed with Rameez Raja's comments during his commentry.

Kamran Akmal sucks again, why is he in the team?
This is called real friend ship with Captain and the board.
Misba is not usefulness.
In last 10 overs any talender can score 20 to 30 runs.
Its better to give a chance to young Fawad Alam instead of Misba, Fawad can bowl too.
He is a spinner and Indian wickets mostly very spin oriented.
Look at thier bowling strategy.
Fawad Alam is a good filder too.
Unfortuately Misba is a buddy of Captain Shoaib Malik, so I am sorry for Fawad Alam.

Its better to have Sohail Tanveer instead of Abdur Rehman who is not good in fielding and batting. Abdur rehman has ordinary bowling skills more appropriate for test cricket.
Sohail Tanveer can bat too.

Saima Khan
Islamabad

PCB please send Kamran Akmal to Peshawer.
We will tune him.
He needs performance tunning.

His performance is worst than school level.

KHAN KA WADAA PAKAA WADAA

Gulab Khan
Peshawer

I have a strange feelings for pakistan late overs tactics....why didnt they went after the bowling in final 10 overs when they had 5 wkts in hand & a well set batsmen in Yousuf....Their conservative approach cost them the game as they were 20-30 runs short which they would have a got easily if they attacked a little more!....we have a history of getting walloped for many in final 10 & pakistan didnt do what was obvious....for me our best bowler is RP singh & since he is also struggling that means our bowling is where it was before......Good start for India but a long way to go! I am sure pakistan will come back stronger.

In Pakistan even a streethawker knows that it was Butt's call, but except The Great Younas Khan.
He 1st nailed Butt right in the forehead & then even the whole team. Buckup Khan saaaaab

Looking at Pakistan’s defeat it seems to me that both Shoaib Malik and Lawson who were expected to adopt a very aggressive approach towards Pakitani cricket ( that is natural to the way Pakistan plays) are surprisingly conservative in strategy.

Pakistan have to stop fearing their worst fears, they have to stop being afraid of a batting collapse and should keep 6 specialist batsmen, 4 specialist bowlers and 1 really good all- rounder. As far as a Abdur-Rehman goes we see that Malik had to take him off very quickly and he was neither pentrative nor contaning as a bowler against the Indians. It is high time Pakistan take some chances, its high time Lawson and Shoaib take some risks without fear and they should bring in a Specialist spinner who can be an attacking wicket taking threat in ODIs in the form of Kaneria.

Kaneria is cetainly going to add an extra dimension to the attack and we need to replace Abdur-Rehman with Kaneria. The rest of the team is fine the way it is except that Hameed should come in at the top in place of Misbah at the bottom. Pakistan has to stop burrying its good batsmen down the order. Either bring Misbah up the order or Hameed at 1 down.

I would agree with Lawson that they should pick an opening pair with the greatest potential and run with it. In Pakistan's case we don't have alot of options and Yasir and Salman are the best opening combination we have as far as talent goes after that we need to stick it out with them and check their learning curve to see them grow and become formidable new ball batsmen.

Also with the problem of Kamran Akmal we may be able to strike 2 birds with one stone. For those who don't know, Kamran was a specialist batsman who took up wicket keeping to improve his chances of getting into the national team. And I think the reason why his keeping has dipped is because he doesn't get to do alot of what he loves most which is bat.

He's been consistently giving us lower order 15s and 30s and I'd rather have Akmal come in to open and give us that early momentum which is always crucial for the Pakistani line-up. Also I feel if they stick it out with Akmal they are going to find a formidable opener in him. He is agressive, yet has a very orthodox style and his performance against a moving ball in Karachi against India proves he has the ability to play the moving ball better than other Pakistanis.

Therefore if you're looking at the top 3 batsmen of the line-up you can open with Akmal and Butt and have Yasir come in at 1 down. Misbah is going to have to sit on the bench, Pakistan should play positive cricket and should bat top heavy and not go down with middle order trenchmen who may be sublime at chasing but we need our batsmen to play positively and aggressively and for that we need run-makers who create momentum.

Pakistan needs to adopt its natural aggressive approach towards cricket, the ‘all-or-nothing approach’. A coach that was once part of the media and a young captain might be too ‘media conscious’ , they need to forget what everyone thinks and take some chances because if they aren’t going to win they are going to be derided anyways. Shoaib needs to bring Kaneria in and bring in Hameed at 1 down. Good luck Pakistan!

Pakistan cricket board and selectors are waiting that Kamran Akmal completes the century of catches dropped behind the wickets and then probably they will think of retiring him, he is so close to this unsurmountable record, that it will be a huge injustice with him not to let him complete that record so guys all of us will have to wait and see, he had a good match last night he dropped three catches again and is inching towards his record which if completed will be unbeatable and Kamran Akmal's name will be etched forever on the wall of shame in PCB hallways.GO AKAMAL GO. GO PCB GO.

To JAVED A. KHAN, MONTREAL, CANADA at November 2, 2007 2:40 AM:

"OK, now if you use your Grey Matter i.e., if you have any, here is something for you to ponder and wonder! Out of the 243 matches he was MoM for 18 times, right? I have asked this question à Monsieur Osman Khairi to give me a name of any Pakistani player or any player in the world who has been named MoM 18 times in ODI matches?"

One of my friend told me about this post, and i was like "huh!!!!". There is NO ONE in PAKISTAN.. forget the "world"! i wish i could say something - BUT NO USE - Some people are just getting dumber, but more opinionated.

Here is the list - ONLY PAK players! i have taken out players with 247+ ODI.

Player Mat Awards
Saeed Anwar 247 27
Javed Miandad 233 18
Shahid Afridi* 245 18
Mohd Yousuf* 247 17
Abdul Razzaq* 231 16
Shoaib Malik* 145 12
Younis Khan* 156 8
Shoaib Akhtar* 134 8
Yasir Hameed* 55 5

Never before, at least in the recent past that a cricket match between India / Pakistan was as boring, dull and one sided, as this one was. And never before in my entire life that I slept while watching a cricket match. I dozed off, when Dhoni and Yuvraj were batting and both had scored 25 odd runs by then it was around 4:30 a.m., here. The writing was on the wall, loud and clear and thats what happened - a very easy victory for India. Normally, when India is winning, the crowd is roaring and cheering, but they were all quiet. Perhaps, they too were disenchanted and were expecting a better fight from Pakistan which did not happen. And on top of that I had to go through the misery of bearing some of the terrible commentators like, Arun Lal with his ever so repetitive biases against the opposition, Shiva Rama Krishna in his cuckoo style singing drab and Amir Sohail with his phony accent loaded with deep throat grunts and arrogance of Robin Jackman in it, must be the other reasons for me to doze off.

First, it was the pathetic batting (according to Zaheer Abbass - by the two "U's" Awas, he must have meant Yousuf and Younus and you know, you have to be "ZahEinstein" to think like that) :-) Anyways, they both batted like they were playing a test match and scored only 35 runs in 12 overs. Wasted, the time, balls, created "yawns" and killed the tempo that was created by Butt Saab, who came back in to his "uniform." Younus Khan took over that VC mantle from Butt or should I say the "vice curse?" And, Butt's head appeared lighter than before i.e., after passing on the VC crown to Younus, he played well in the warm up match 83 runs in 84 balls and now 50 runs in 57 balls. Its a shame that Younus got him run out when he was all set for a big score. Then, Younus killed the match with his slow scoring; 4 runs in 22 balls and finally 25 runs in 58 balls. Younus also dropped a couple of catches, though very difficult but, they must have been held. He is the main culprit for loosing this match. Now, in the next games he will play and score big and cement his place for another ten matches, even then Pakistan will lose that match in which he will score big, and that has been a regular feature for quite sometime now.

Akmal was unlucky to be given out LBW but, he is lucky to be there in the team. Once again he missed a Shoaib / Gambhir snicker that went away for a four and then he dropped Gambhir. Again he dropped a very simple catch of Gambhir in the first over of Afridi. Shoaib Akhtar was not looking fully fit and he was seen "haanping" and sweating and wasn't up to his full steam. He gets very disappointed and upset when a catch is dropped on his bowling or a misfield resulting in a boundary. He has the right to get upset, but it should not affect his over all performance, which so often happens and he looses his cool very soon. Since he is on probation so he controlled his emotions, I wonder how he may have reacted if it was some other time?

Mohammad Yousuf tried to get into Inzi's shoes by taking advantage of that Ganguly sitter when he dropped him on 10, but despite the fact that Inzi was bigger, fatter and more lazier than Yousuf he used to improvise the run rate. When Younus and Afridi were Yousuf's partners, he was relying more on them to score rather than accelerating the run rate himself his 83 n.o. were not good enough. Misbah has not been able to score 30 plus runs in the last 6 matches. It isn't that he didn't get enough time but, he is simply getting edgy and loosing his wicket when he is around 30. He needs to address this problem with his coach and reassess his approach.

I don't think they will make any changes in the team for Mohali ODI, unless Shoaib Actor comes up with a fitness related problem, which won't surprise me. Then Tanvir will get in. Since, Butt has played well he will stay and they don't have Akmal's replacement in the current team, he will stay too. Barring Shahid Afridi and Gul, everyone gave away too many runs per over. It was good to see Afridi bowling off-spin and off-cutters besides his leg spin and the way he got Gambhir behind his legs was a superb off spin delivery.

Malik needs to rethink about his strategy of spin bowling, IMO Abdul Rahman should be out in the next match at Mohali because, Indians play well against spin bowling. Tanvir should get in, he can do some damage if he bowls first with Akhtar, because so far, neither Ganguly nor Tendulkar has played Tanvir and he can surprise them, especially Tendulkar has this tendency to get out against new bowlers. Umar Gul and Rao Ifti should come in as first change bowlers. Malik, himself is not very effective with his bowling and has taken up the role of a fill-in bowler. He used to be a partnership breaker, but now he is lacking in self confidence and self belief and he now thinks that he could be effective when a new batsman is in and, he can contain the runs rather than getting wickets.

PS.
The only way Kamran Akmal and Younus Khan's problem could be resolved is, if Younus Khan takes over the gloves from Akmal there will be a spot for a specialist batsman. In India, I would prefer Imran Nazir and not Yasir Hameed. Pakistan needs to bat aggressively, if they don't play aggressively then, this could be a white-wash.

Short and simple!

Make Shahid Afridi captain, drop Akmal and introduce Sarfraz!

All Agreed!

Let's face it:The state of Pakistan cricket reflects that of the country in terms of excuses, lack of maturity, corruption/nepotism, lack of prde/accountability etc Either way both are very depressing indeed at present.

However, as this is a cricket blog, I'll confine my comments to cricketing matters but suffice it to say this has to be almost the weakest team Pakistan has had. I say 'almost' but barring the team which was shorn of the main players during the Packer era this is certainly I think the least talented outfit we have had.

What the recent series against S Africa has shown is that Shoaib Malik is not captaincy material since he lacks the experience & stature necessary, not to mention the requisite talent and skills to lead. But for now he is captain and if he has any say in the selection process then you also have to question his judgment since there is no way one can justify the inclusion of players like Misbah (or 'Misfired more like it)ul Haq in the team.

So the bottom line unfortunately for Pakistan supporters is that I can only see us going down further.The future looks very bleak on both counts but that is the reality. or 'Plus ca change' as the French would say.

Second,

Few years back i was playing a big cricket club, and the captain of the club was so friendly with every one and has no sense to pick the right combinations, suddenly got dead in car accident and management gave me captaincy and management saw the positive results in the very next match.

The things I changes for my team I made a combination that could bat tell the No.10
Our regular keeper was too poor, he couldn’t bat or catch the ball, he was a liability on my club team but he was famous bcoz of his only some good knocks but I replace him with my one 12th man opener he can bat very good and can keep better than him, in this way got more strength in batting and then other captain has a liability left arm spinner in the team I replaced him with an other left arm real all-rounder spinner who can bat very well and I started to send him in the one down position in the place of my one pregnant donkey style batsman who was used to made 25 runs around 60 balls. My new one down batsman made a 100 in the very first match for me. and our old donkey batsman never won a single odi for our club but he was more famous person in all clubs but I was the first person who realized that he is just donkey batsman he is not match winner.

Then I picked a bowling all-rounder who can bowl some good first overs with his dodgy bowling style most of the batsman couldn’t pick him well bcoz of his different angle bowling and he always gave me some strength in the lower down the order. He was capable to hit couple of sixes lower down the order.

Even though I was playing with non regular keeper but my club after that never lost match from llollo pollo fast bowling though we lost few matches against No1 club.

Our long betting always gave us big help to win the matches against all poor